May 2025

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Woven Mat

Yolŋu weavers of Arnhem Land create utilitarian, ceremonial, and decorative pieces using naturally sourced materials. This mat is made from young Pandanus spiralis leaves, harvested with a wooden hook, stripped of prickles, and dried to create strong, resilient fibres. These fibres are then twisted, coiled, or woven using traditional techniques to produce both functional and decorative mats.

Bula’bula weavers exclusively use natural dyes, derived from locally sourced roots, leaves and grasses. These pigments are extracted and infused into pandanus fibres by boiling over an open fire, producing the rich, vibrant colours characteristic of contemporary Yolŋu weavings.

Traditionally, Nganiyal (conical mats) functioned as insect screens when erected and as seating mats when folded, playing an important role in both daily life and ceremonial practices. Today, Yolŋu artists create a variety of shapes, including flat, round, and oblong mats. These non-traditional styles and the use of bright colours became more common after Missionaries began commissioning pieces in this style.

By CompNet Systems, ago

221382367146

Handwoven Dillybag Earrings, Copper/Silver

Wagilak Yapa Watj (Wagilak Sisters) range –
exclusive jewellery from Indigenous women of Beswick. Developed in studio workshops with jeweller Kate Sale and weaver Fiona Gavino, traditional fibre artists are translating their skills into a series of fine woven wire earrings and pendants. Hand woven in sliver, gold and copper, traditional forms are transformed as delicate interpretations of string and dilly bags, baskets and mats.

Featuring sterling silver, 9ct gold and copper (all nickel-free work).

By CompNet Systems, ago

221382367145

Handwoven Dillybag Earrings, Silver 925

Wagilak Yapa Watj (Wagilak Sisters) range –
exclusive jewellery from Indigenous women of Beswick. Developed in studio workshops with jeweller Kate Sale and weaver Fiona Gavino, traditional fibre artists are translating their skills into a series of fine woven wire earrings and pendants. Hand woven in sliver, gold and copper, traditional forms are transformed as delicate interpretations of string and dilly bags, baskets and mats.

Featuring sterling silver, 9ct gold and copper (all nickel-free work).

By CompNet Systems, ago

221382367144

Handwoven Dillybag Earrings, 9ct Gold

Wagilak Yapa Watj (Wagilak Sisters) range –
exclusive jewellery from Indigenous women of Beswick. Developed in studio workshops with jeweller Kate Sale and weaver Fiona Gavino, traditional fibre artists are translating their skills into a series of fine woven wire earrings and pendants. Hand woven in sliver, gold and copper, traditional forms are transformed as delicate interpretations of string and dilly bags, baskets and mats.

Featuring sterling silver, 9ct gold and copper (all nickel-free work).

By CompNet Systems, ago

377810582366994

Ngaldjorlhbo (Mother of Everything)

Ngaldjorlhbo is a powerful woman who created the spiritual and tangible world for the Aboriginal people in Western Arnhem Land. In creating the land and environment, she endowed Kuninjku people with the ability to create art, and with their culture, to share with future generations. Ngaldjorlhbo gives women the cultural knowledge and deep links to country, identity and ancestor spirits. 

‘Ngaldjorlhbo created daluk (women) When she started walking she started talking and telling stories. She create, came together as one. She was walking, thinking and writing with her hand creating all the animals and trees.  Creating mountains and rivers. Came together and made a beautiful flowing wind and river to the coming of the land. From fresh water to the salt water river, all the fish, all kinds of fish she created.

From little bird, big bird she created. She came all the way from east, west, north and south. 

She knows all the places from this land. She was speaking, she was telling, she was creating the country, this world. 

She was carrying kunmadj and digging stick and she created yawkyawk.

So that’s the story about Ngaldjorlhbo.’

Janet Marawarr 2022

 

 

By CompNet Systems, ago

377810582366993

Manbirrbbirr (small bush flowers)

In Kuninjku the name manbirrbbirr is used for a number of densely flowering shrubs and small trees including Verticordia cunninghamii, yellow flowering Austromyrtus species and also Acacia platycarpa which also has dense white. 

 

By CompNet Systems, ago

111982366928

Kalawan (Goanna)

This painting depicts two goannas embedded in an intricate depiction of kunkurra, the mini cyclones common during the wet season in Arnhem Land. Kunkurra also relates specifically to the Bilwoyinj site. At this site, two of the most important Kuninjku creation beings, a father and son, hunted and ate goanna. They left some goanna fat behind, which turned into the rock that still stands at the site today.

By CompNet Systems, ago

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Yimiri

Yimiri comprises two freshwater soaks situated in the middle of a salt lake in the Percival Lakes area, within Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Around these soaks the Country is dominated by permanent tuwa (sand hills). When visiting this site to drink water, the bulrushes surrounding the soaks are pushed back to access the kapi (water). 

Yimiri is home to an ancestral jila (snake). The Western Desert term jila is used interchangeably to describe springs considered to be ‘living’ waters and snakes, both of which play a central role in Martu culture and Jukurrpa (Dreaming). During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period, knowledge of water sources was critical for survival, and today Martu Country is still defined in terms of the location of water sources. Of the many permanent springs in Martu Country, very few are ‘living waters’; waters inhabited by jila. Before they became snakes, these beings were men who made rain, formed the land and introduced cultural practices like ceremonies and ritual songs. Some of the men travelled the desert together, visiting one another, but they all ended their journeys at their chosen spring alone, transformed into a snake. These important springs are named after their jila inhabitant, guarding their waters.

The region surrounding Yimiri was formed by Wirnpa, one of the most powerful of the ancestral jila (snake) men and the last to travel the desert during the Jukurrpa. Wirnpa is a rainmaking jila who lived and hunted in the Percival Lakes area. His travels are described in the songs and stories of many language groups across the Western Desert, even those far removed from his home site. In his epic travels, Wirnpa met and feasted with many other ancestral beings, exchanged ceremonial objects, and created a series of different laws and ceremonies. When he finally returned home, he searched for his many children only to discover that they had already died. They had laid down and become the salt springs of the Percival Lakes. Wirnpa wept for his children before himself transforming into a snake and entering the soak where he still resides. 

During the pujiman period, Martu would traverse very large distances annually in small family groups, moving seasonally from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. At this time knowledge of water sources was critical for survival, and today Martu Country is still defined in terms of the location and type of water. Each of the hundreds of claypans, rockholes, waterholes, soaks and springs found in the Martu desert homelands is known by name, location, quality and seasonal availability through real life experience and the recounting of Jukurrpa narratives.

By CompNet Systems, ago

111582367140

Old Lady’s Collecting Seed

Depicted in this work are traditional types of bush tucker, their habitats, and their related hunting and gathering methods. During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period, Martu would traverse very large distances annually in small family groups, moving seasonally from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. Whilst desert life has moved away from mobile hunter-gatherer subsistence throughout the course of the twentieth century, bush tucker continues to be a significant component of the modern Martu diet. Hunting and gathering bush tucker remains equally valuable as an important cultural practice that is passed on intergenerationally. Though hunting and gathering implements have been modernised, methods of harvesting, tracking and the use of fire burning to drive animals from their retreats are still commonly practiced today. 

Typically, animals hunted for their kuwiyi (meat) include kirti-kirti (euro kangaroo) and marlu (plains kangaroo), parnajarrpa (sand goanna), kipara (Australian bustard, bush turkey) and karlaya (emu). Lunki (witchetty grub) and wuukurta (honey ants) are dug from tree and bush trunks, or from underground nests. Popular mayi (plant food) includes minyarra (bush onion), collected from small, grass like plants; root vegetables dug from underground such as kulyu and mata (types of bush potato); and seeds such as kalaru (samphire, salt bush), yuwinyji, and marnkalpa (spinifex species). Jawirli (quondong), wamurla (bush tomatoes), jinyjiwirrily (wild gooseberry), ngaputa (melon), and karlkula (bush banana) are some of the most popular bush fruits. These are often collected in the wantajarra (cool season) and tuulpara (spring) months, along with juri (sweet) botanical gums and wama (nectar), obtained from various plant species. 

Traditional tools used for hunting and gathering bush tucker were carved from wanari (mulga), mulunturu (desert oak), yurungkura (river red gum) and mijarrpa (bloodwoods), and included kurlata (spears), jurna (hitting stick), karli (boomerangs), wana (digging-sticks), piti (timber bowls used for carrying food and water), and jiwa (grinding stones for grinding seeds into flour). While carved objects retain enormous social and ceremonial importance in Martu life, they are no longer used for hunting and gathering.

By CompNet Systems, ago